The Seven Stages of Scorpius and Rose
by SiriuslyGeorgia
Summary: A seven part story exploring the seven years, and the seven stages, that Scorpius and Rose go through together.
1. Fierce Rivals

**A/N: A seven part story, all chapters should be fairly short like this one, probably shorter. Everything is JKR's.**

* * *

When Rose's dad told her to stay away from Scorpius Malfoy, and to beat him in every test, she took the words to heart. She couldn't have Granddad Weasley hating her, could she? As for marrying the boy, even Rose knew _that_ was a joke.

Fuelled by her dad's encouragement, Rose was sure she'd be way cleverer than the Malfoy boy – Teddy had told her stories about Scorpius' father and Rose didn't think he was the kind of man to have an intelligent son. And anyway, aren't all girls cleverer than boys?

Rose had gasped along with the rest of the school when Scorpius was sorted into Ravenclaw. She'd had him pegged as an easy-to-beat Slytherin, but the Sorting Hat obviously thought different, which wasn't good news – especially when Rose was sorted into Gryffindor. Did the hat not think she was as smart as Malfoy? She bristled all the way down to Gryffindor table, and it was only when she sat next to Albus that she felt any better. Her mum hadn't been in Ravenclaw, and she was the smartest person Rose knew.

* * *

In her first day of lessons, Rose dragged Albus to the front of every classroom, where the latter watched his cousin's very diligent (to a point of obsessive) note-making. On the second day of lessons, Rose found herself sitting with Francesca Longbottom, as Albus had blatantly refused to sit at the front any longer. At first, Rose was put out by her cousin's betrayal, but soon became best friends with the equally as diligent Francesca.

The first time the Hogwarts first years were graded was a foot-long Charms essay. To her delight, Rose was awarded an O. Casually glancing behind, she noted that Scorpius – was that _Albus _sat next to him? – got an E. Pride filled Rose; she'd show her dad, show everyone, that Rose Weasley, a Gryffindor, could beat Scorpius Malfoy, a Ravenclaw.

Francesca leaned over and whispered in Rose's ear. "Scorpius doesn't look happy."

"What?" Rose asked, looking back again. Francesca was right, Scorpius looked fairly angry with a hint of something else in his expression, and he was looking straight at her. Rose turned back around quickly, feeling her face inflame.

"He must've seen you look at his grade," said Francesca, "you weren't very subtle about it."

Rose frowned. "Was I not?"

Francesca rolled her eyes. "Not unless subtle is staring at his E with a massive grin on your face."

_Oh. _Rose realised what else was in Scorpius' expression: guessed that now, Scorpius would try and beat her. Well, Rose wasn't going to let herself be beaten by a _Malfoy_. Her dad would practically disown her! And that's where the fierce rivalry between Rose and Scorpius began.

* * *

The first time Scorpius beat Rose was in Transfiguration, two weeks after the Charms incident. Rose just couldn't wrap her head around levitating and the words 'Wingardium Leviosa' sent her running for the hills. So it wasn't surprising when her essay on the proper technique, incantation and effect of the spell barely scraped an A. Scorpius tried to be discreet when looking at her grade, but she knew what he was doing, because she'd done it to him many times before. She was humiliated, especially when Albus brought it up again later at dinner.

* * *

She didn't tell her dad about the times that Scorpius beat her, but she did write home almost every time her grade exceeded his.

At Christmas, her dad took her aside and said, "You know, Rosie, you don't have to tell me every time you beat the Malfoy boy, I'd be so proud of you even if you lost miserably to him every day."

Rose hugged her dad and thanked him for what she perceived as the biggest compliment he'd ever given her. But she wasn't going to give up on beating Scorpius – that would just mean he' d won, and there's no way she'd give him the satisfaction.

* * *

Both her cousin and her best friend often questioned Rose on why she was so eager to beat Scorpius, and every time her answer was the same.

"I don't know, I just don't want him to win."

Francesca nodded knowingly every time she got this answer, but still asked every now and again, though the answer never changed.

"You don't mind when anyone else gets a better mark than you," Albus always replied. "Francesca beats you all the time."

All the time was a bit of an over-exaggeration, but Rose replied with the truth. "Yeah, but she's not a Malfoy. Plus, I actually like Francesca."

This led on to Albus demanding why she didn't like Scorpius, but Rose always severed the conversation there. It wasn't as if she just didn't like Malfoy, he just couldn't win. The rivalry between her and Scorpius was second-nature; it wasn't as if one day she'd just think 'I'm going to stop this stupid rivalry now'.

* * *

Throughout their first year, many death glares, snide smirks and derisive laughs passed between the two, with Francesca and Albus (the latter, for whatever reason, had become friendly with Scorpius) as unwilling witnesses. However, by the end of the year, Rose and Scorpius still had yet to utter an actual word to each other.


	2. Mutual Friends

A/N: Apparently I lied in the A/N before the first chapter – this one is about twice as long. Enjoy!

* * *

In the summer between first and second year, Rose's parents and Uncle Harry sat her and Albus down and explained everything that they'd experienced in their years at Hogwarts. The cousins acted shocked throughout the whole of the story, although honestly, they'd managed to piece together most of the story already from James and fellow Hogwarts students. It sounded a lot different, and sometimes a lot less spectacular, coming from their own parents.

"Here's hoping I don't have to kill a Basilisk next year," was Rose's first response after she had endured the whole story in silence.

Her mum looked as if she was going to scold Rose for making light of 'very serious events in which many people died' but her dad shook his head and she stayed silent.

"Trust me," her Uncle Harry said, "you really don't want to go anywhere near a Basilisk, never mind have to kill one."

Rose would never tell Albus this, but she overheard him later ask his dad if there was any chance of Voldemort rising again.

"No chance whatsoever," Harry assured him, "there's no way; we made sure all the pieces of him were destroyed. He's gone, and nothing like that will ever happen again."

Rose would never tell Albus this, but she felt relieved by the words as well.

* * *

The first of September came and, as usual, the Potters and Wealseys claimed their own carriages. Rose was just about to enter the third and final family carriage when she realised Albus had walked off in front of her.

"Hey, Al, where are you going?"

Albus spun around. "I'm going to sit with Scorpius."

Rose scrunched up her nose. "You can't do that – you'll break tradition!"

"He doesn't have anyone else to sit with," Albus said and turned his back on her to continue walking down the corridor.

Rose wrenched open the carriage door, making Fred, James, Dominique and Louis jump when it slammed behind her. She quickly forgot her frustration when she was introduced to a brand new, yet not entirely tested, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes product. Not another thought was spared for Albus and his apparently-more-important-than-family friend.

* * *

Throughout the following school year, Rose found herself feeling increasingly resentful towards Scorpius Malfoy. He always looked unimpressed, or too boastful. She had no idea why her sweet, usually mild-mannered cousin was friends with a boy like that.

Her feelings had absolutely nothing to do with the fact he was becoming increasingly harder to out-perform in lessons.

Merlin, did she want to wipe that unemotionally smug look off his face permanently.

* * *

"Just why, exactly, are you friends with him?" Rose sighed irritably. She had just experienced her fiftieth loss of the year to Scorpius and was taking her frustrations out on her cousin, as usual. They were sat eating dinner in the Great Hall which surprised Rose as, more often than not, Albus would be off somewhere with Scorpius. The kitchens, she suspected.

Albus rolled his eyes. "Are you going to continue asking me this every time he gets a higher mark than you?"

Rose opened her mouth to deny she was asking because Malfoy got a better grade than her in Potions, but thought better of it and said instead, "Yes."

"I'm friends with him because…" Albus thought for a moment, "I just am."

Leaning forward with her elbow nearly on a slice of bread, Rose took a deep breath, trying to signify the importance of her next words. "But you're a Potter, and he's a Malfoy."

"Well done Rose; you're a Weasley."

Rose glared at her cousin. "You can't be friends!"

"Why not? My dad said that he and Scorpius' dad just didn't get on very well. I wouldn't call that a reason to hate him."

As Rose watched her cousin tuck into his second portion of treacle tart, she had an idea. She threw a quick goodbye and promise to meet in the Common Room before curfew over her shoulder before running to the library.

For the rest of the evening, Rose trawled through old Daily Prophets and fairly recent history books. She was joined an hour into her search by Francesca, who grudgingly helped and made frequent comments about Rose's insanity.

"Rose, you might want to look here," Francesca called just as Rose was about to give up her search. "You were looking when our dads were at school, but the stuff you want happened years before."

Rose grabbed two articles from her best friend's hands and read the headlines.

'LUCIUS MALFOY CLAIMS IMPERIUS'

'MALFOY FREED AFTER GENEROUS CONTRIBUTION TO MUNGOS'

* * *

"There!" Rose exclaimed as she thrust the yellowed articles into Albus' hands.

Albus squinted at the pages as his cousin flopped onto the sofa next to him. "These are dated 1982."

"Exactly," Rose said, "just read."

Unenthusiastically, Albus skimmed the articles. Rose watched as he paled. "But – he was under the Imperius curse."

Rose placed a hand on her cousin's shoulder. "I know you remember what Granddad Weasley told us in summer about how the Death Eaters got out of Azkaban by falsely claiming they'd been forced to follow Voldemort."

Albus shrugged off Rose's hand and stormed off in the direction of his dormitory, scrunching the articles up as he went.

* * *

The next day, Rose noticed Scorpius sat on his own in every lesson, and Albus sat at the back. Rose tried to wave her cousin over, but he pretended not to notice. Why on earth was he mad at her, as well?

"Maybe," said Francesca gently, "he didn't think it was your business to question his friendship."

"But Scorpius' dad and granddad…"

Francesca cut in, "What if Albus tried to stop you being friends with me because my dad was a bit slow in school?"

"That's ridiculous!" Rose sputtered.

"Girls," warned Professor Flitwick, effectively stopping the conversation.

Lost in thought, Rose didn't write a word for the rest of the lesson.

When the class was packing up after the lesson, Scorpius caught up to Rose. "Can I speak to you for a second?"

Rose thought these were the first words he'd ever spoken to her. "Er, sure."

The rest of the class filed out, leaving the two stood in the classroom with Professor Flitwick. Rose and Scorpius both glanced over to the old man, who nodded as he took the hint.

"You two hurry up," said Flitwick as he too left the room.

Awkwardly, Rose began playing with her bag strap.

"Do you know why Albus won't talk to me?" Scorpius asked.

Rose gaped and left it slightly too long to reply. "Me? Why would I know?"

Scorpius scoffed and thumbed his tie. "It doesn't take a Ravenclaw to figure out it probably has something to do with why he's ignoring you too."

"All right," Rose sighed, "I showed him an article about your grandfather."

Scorpius backed up until he was resting on a desk. "What did it say?" His voice was tight.

Rose took a deep breath. No point sparing him the details. "It said his charges of multiple counts of murder and torture were dropped after he pleaded he was under the Imperius curse."

Scorpius' eyes intensely fixed on hers. Rose stepped back automatically. Scorpius' face fell, and he looked down at the floor. "Why?"

The whispered question sounded so raw, Rose felt like she was intruding. She was about to scarper when Scorpius slowly brought his eyes back to hers.

"Why do people always assume the worst of me? My granddad made bad decisions, yes, and my dad did too, when he was a teenager, but I'm not them! I would never…" Scorpius caught himself, seeming to realise who he was talking to. "You know why Al and I are friends?"

Rose wasn't going to answer, but the silence stretched. "No…" she admitted finally.

"Because he's the only one who didn't judge me because of my surname; everyone else assumed I was bad news and judged me purely for being born."

In normal circumstances, Rose would've defended herself, but they both knew she'd done exactly that last year. Her fingers stopped fiddling with her bag strap.

"I'm sorry," Rose said, looking around the Charms classroom where, almost two years ago, she'd snuck a glance at Scorpius' grade, desperate to beat him because he was a Malfoy.

Even though she didn't expand, Scorpius seemed to grasp her meaning as he nodded and said, "Don't be."

Rose gave him a quizzical look.

Scorpius smiled. "I like a challenge."

Relieved she hadn't added to Scorpius' obvious inner turmoil, Rose smiled back. "I'll talk to Albus."

Almost immediately, Scorpius' face lost all traces of amusement. Rose hadn't noticed before now, but she had a feeling shutting people out was Scorpius' way of dealing with the prejudice against him.

"Thanks," he said, adjusting himself so he was sat fully on the desk.

"Aren't you coming to dinner?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, I'll be there soon."

Rose offered him one last, slightly sympathetic smile before leaving the classroom.

In between her roast beef and mashed potato, Rose spent the whole of dinner trying to persuade Albus to stop ignoring _her_. Apparently, he'd already gotten over the news of Scorpius' family by the time he'd settled at the Gryffindor table. It took a lot of persuading, by both herself and Francesca, to convince Albus that she was only looking out for him (a slight exaggeration of the truth), and that she was genuinely sorry – that bit, at least, was completely true.

* * *

You could see this as a turning point, but perhaps the more realistic outlook would be that the shared moment in the Charms classroom led to yet more months of silence between Scorpius and Rose.


	3. Healthy Competiton

By her third year, Rose had well and truly established herself as one of the brightest students Hogwarts had seen in recent years. Rose was immensely proud of this, and spent her days making sure she lived up to her title. She handed all her homework in on time, practised until she was perfect, and did extra reading.

One comment was all it took to dent the seemingly perfect persona Rose had built – one dent that had the ability to tear everything down.

* * *

It came out of nowhere, really. Having finished that day's homework after four hours of working, a frazzled Rose was walking out of the library when Angus Zabini shouldered into her. Spinning around, Rose opened her mouth ready to yell at the Slytherin boy. She stopped when she caught sight of the cruel smirk on his face.

"Watch where you're going, Weasley. I wouldn't want you to infect me with a serious case of ugly nerd."

Rose gaped. "Excuse me?"

Zabini didn't even dignify Rose with a response and made his way into the library, the door slamming shut a wands-width from Rose's face. Maybe it would've hurt less if the door had actually hit her.

Furiously, Rose wiped tears from her cheeks as she backed into a hidden alcove that she remembered from the map James had shown her. Unlike her mother before her, Rose had never faced hurtful comments from anyone, least of all Slytherins. She sat on the stone floor in the alcove to compose herself.

She tried to tell herself that she didn't care if Angus Zabini thought she was ugly or a nerd. Whilst it was true she didn't care what _Angus Zabini _thought, the insults rang true. With her freckles and flyaway ginger hair, Rose would never have considered herself pretty, but she'd never thought of herself as ugly before – and now the word played over and over again in her mind. As for nerd, she knew that was true, but it still hurt for someone to use her (albeit flaunted) intelligence as a slur against her.

Resolutely, Rose decided the only thing for her to do would be to prove Zabini – and everyone – wrong. Standing up, Rose brushed off her skirt, hitched it up an inch, and wiped every last trace of tears from her face.

The various family members she passed on the way back to Gryffindor Tower didn't even notice she'd been crying. To Rose's delight, Louis even called out "Pull that skirt down before I owl your mother!"

* * *

The next morning, Rose pinched some makeup from one of her muggleborn roommate's bedside table. Thank God Anna is as pale as me, Rose thought as she smeared foundation over her freckles. As part of her plan, Rose was the last one up, having ignored Francesca's attempts to rouse her. Choosing straightening her hair over having breakfast was a decision the old Rose would never have made in a million years, but the new Rose laboriously pressed her wand over her curls until it all fell flat.

Rose slipped into the Potions classroom just before the bell and sat at an empty table at the back. As usual, the first thing Professor Stryder did was collect the homework. Rose watched as Francesca, Albus and Scorpius handed in their essays, the former two giving Rose strange looks from across the classroom. The latter seemed to be appraising her without looking as surprised.

"Homework, please, Rose," said Professor Stryder, holding an almost complete set of essays.

Rose took a deep breath before meeting the professor's gaze. "I haven't done it."

Past Stryder, Rose could see her friend and cousin straining their necks to see her.

"In that case," said Stryder after a moment's pause, "I want it on my desk first thing tomorrow morning."

Surprised, Rose agreed, even though the completed essay was currently nestled in the bag at her feet.

As soon as they could, Francesca and Albus were all over Rose, firing questions at her ranging from the makeup on her face, the seat at the back and the lack of homework, all anti-Rose qualities. Once Rose had convinced the pair she was not on drugs, Albus returned to his seat and Francesca grudgingly took a seat at the back.

By the end of the day, Rose had gained a detention from her lack of Ancient Runes homework. A bit extreme, she thought but she admitted to herself that getting a detention felt quite liberating.

Detention didn't feel quite so liberating after she spent half an hour writing lines until her hand cramped. Even being let off three quarters of an hour early didn't make Rose feel much better.

Francesca and Albus met her outside detention, and proceeded to march her outside into the cool spring air.

"What's going on with you?" Albus demanded once they were a safe distance away from the school doors.

Rose sighed. "Nothing!"

Rolling her eyes, Francesca said, "Don't be ridiculous. You don't just have a complete personality transplant and makeover for nothing."

Rose stood in stony silence for a few minutes. "Fine," she mumbled. "Angus Zabini called me an ugly nerd."

"Oh, the nerve of him to call you ugly! Did you see him the other day when he was wearing that _ridiculous _hat?"

Despite herself, Rose smiled at Francesca's comment. She looked at her cousin, who seemed to be deep in thought.

"One second, I just need to go and do something," said Albus. Before Rose could protest, he was running back towards the castle.

Like a good friend, Francesca spent the next ten minutes trying to convince Rose that she was beautiful. Rose, however, was more preoccupied with thoughts of Albus and hoping he wasn't doing anything he'd regret to Zabini. Scratch that, she wanted Albus to beat the sneer off Zabini's face.

So when Albus reappeared with none other than Scorpius Malfoy, Rose was even more confused.

"Tell her what Zabini said to you the other day," instructed Albus when he was in Rose's hearing range.

Deadpan, as if reading from a script he had no interest in, Scorpius said: "He told me I was a disgrace and shouldn't have been born."

Francesca gasped. Immediately Rose felt guilty about making a huge deal over what was nothing in comparison. She felt even more horrible over the fact he'd had to repeat that to two girls he barely knew. Apparently the same thought had occurred to Francesca, as she slowly edged her way back to the castle. Albus gave his cousin a look before following.

Rose was acutely aware this was the first time she'd been alone with Scorpius since he'd told her about the prejudices held against him due to his family. It didn't look as if Scorpius was going to say anything further, as he was staring at the ground next to Rose's feet, looking unmoved.

"I'm sorry," Rose began. Scorpius barely lifted his eyes. "I know what you mean. I shouldn't overreact when people have it so much worse than I do."

Slowly, Scorpius shook his head. "I'm sure that's what Albus meant, but my point is that you shouldn't change yourself and your beliefs because some scum like Zabini thinks you're not worthy."

Forehead creased, Rose sat down on the grass, hugging her knees. She felt as if she owed Scorpius a whole slew of words about how much that meant to her. "Thanks," was all she said.

"I've had a lot of time to think about it."

"I'm sorry," Rose said again, and she was. She was genuinely apologetic for the things Scorpius had to go through, just for being alive.

"Don't be," he said, and lowered himself to sit on the grass next to her.

Rose laughed. "You've said that to me before."

"That's because you have a tendency to apologise for things that aren't your fault," explained Scorpius.

"Maybe it's because you have a tendency not to let anyone feel bad for you." As soon as Rose said it, she wanted to take it back.

Silently, Scorpius pushed himself off the ground.

"Wait – I didn't mean it like that!" Rose jumped up and grabbed Scorpius' arm before he could get any further away.

Scorpius had closed himself off again. "I don't need anyone's pity."

Rose refused to relinquish her grip. "I meant you push people away, that's all."

"I have my reasons," whispered Scorpius, no longer trying to escape.

"I know you do," said Rose, "and I don't blame you."

Scorpius sighed. "Then why are we having this conversation?"

"I don't know," Rose admitted, and then released his arm. To her surprise, he didn't move away.

"The most you can do to tell Zabini that he doesn't matter to you is by being yourself, and proving that being an ugly nerd or whatever is better than being a Slytherin arsehole."

Rose put her hands on her hips. "You think I'm an ugly nerd?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "All I know is that you shouldn't wear any makeup tomorrow because you'll ruin it when you cry over how badly I'll beat you in the Transfiguration test."

"Ha, you wish!"

"If I were you, I wouldn't straighten my hair either," advised Scorpius.

"Why?" Rose asked. "So I can use my curls to hide my shame?"

Scorpius laughed. He turned around and began walking up to the castle, so Rose had barely caught what he said next.

"Because I like the curls – but the shame thing works too."

Rose smiled, twirling a lock of hair around her fingers. When she let it go, it became a curl once again, and Rose found herself looking at it appreciatively.

* * *

That evening, once Rose had returned to the castle, she dragged Francesca to the library and, together, they did every piece of homework they'd been set that day.

Rose was proud to admit that would be the only time she'd ever hand in homework late, and even prouder to admit that would be the last time she'd ever listen to a bully.

However, she wasn't so proud to admit that the next day Scorpius did beat her in the Transfiguration test. When he did, Rose didn't ruin her makeup, as she didn't have any on (she didn't cry, either), nor did she hide her shame behind her un-straightened hair, as she realised that she wasn't ashamed to be beaten by Scorpius. He was a strong competitor, and she respected his wins. This wasn't to say that she was going to let him win. In fact, she found herself working even harder to make sure she'd beat him, but it wasn't so that she could gloat at Scorpius like in the past, it was so that, in her mind, she could chalk up all her victories as victories against Angus Zabini himself.

* * *

So, instead of sharing glares and gloating smirks, they shared appreciative nods and the occasional thumbs up. Although, in true Rose and Scorpius style, this in no way meant they regularly exchanged _words_. No, maybe actual words would have to wait until next year.


	4. Acquaintances

Fourth year was a weird one. Rose and Scorpius were still in competition, but it felt different. Not quite friendly, but reassuring, maybe. Still, Rose rarely ever muttered a word to Scorpius, unless Albus basically forced her to. She presumed it would be awkward if they ever had a conversation that didn't involve one of them having an existential crisis. When the inevitable finally happened, Rose was right.

* * *

Rose had everything planned. She'd switched the map at the bottom of James' trunk with a note that read 'will return tomorrow'. She made sure Francesca and her other roommates were soundly asleep before sneaking out. The mantra of the jaunt was to take it one step at a time, so she checked each corridor was empty on the map before running down it. This was the biggest bout of rule-breaking Rose had ever attempted (unless you counted that one day in third year – but Rose didn't; that was merely a slip in sanity), and she wasn't about to get caught.

Once she was two corridors away from the portrait, Rose folded the map and stored it in her robes. She could make it that far without help. She was lost in thoughts of the best midnight feast she'd ever have – which had always been something she'd wanted to do at Hogwarts, after hearing stories from her parents and older cousins. She tickled the pear and stepped into the kitchens.

The kitchen was exactly how she imagined it – a massive room dominated by replicas of the four house tables, with huge ovens lining the walls and pans hung everywhere. The house elves were a wonder to see. There were only a few of them present because of the time, but they were still bustling around.

The only thing Rose was unprepared for was another student. During her survey of the room, Rose saw the back of his head. Could she back away now, unnoticed? No, he was turning around, alerted by the portrait closing behind her.

"Weasley?" He asked, giving her a once over. Rose suddenly wished she'd brushed her hair instead of shoved it up in a ponytail.

"Hi, Scorpius," she said, stepping closer. "What are you doing here?"

Scorpius shrugged nonchalantly. "Skipped dinner."

"Oh," was all Rose replied, not wanting to press the subject. It must've been hard enough for Scorpius to feel as if he had to avoid everyone, and he didn't need Rose sticking her nose in.

A house elf wearing a jumper emblazoned with the Hogwarts crest ambled over. "Is there anything you want, Miss?"

Rose had harboured grand plans about her spectacular midnight feast, but with Scorpius here she didn't feel very much like pigging out, so she just requested a hot chocolate.

After a few seconds of silence, Scorpius asked, "What about you?"

"Huh?"

"Why are you here? I'm guessing you didn't skip dinner," said Scorpius, accepting a plate of chicken and mashed potato off a different elf.

Rose frowned. "Are you calling me fat?"

"No," Scorpius replied, taking a bite of chicken, "I was insinuating that you're fat."

Rose laughed. Not because Scorpius calling her fat with a mouthful of chicken was funny (even though it was), but because he was joking around with her, and not acting cold and closed-off.

After Rose's laugh, however, silence fell yet again, broken only by a house elf announcing Rose's hot chocolate and Rose thanking the creature profusely, as she knew her mother would not approve of their employment in the kitchens at all.

"You never answered my question," said Scorpius after he had finished his late dinner.

"Oh, right," Rose stalled, "well, erm, I just wanted a hot chocolate." As if she was going to tell Scorpius Malfoy her previously grand plans. The hot chocolate _was _amazing.

Scorpius nodded in a way that made Rose think he didn't believe her.

Rose drained the last of her hot chocolate and passed it to a waiting house elf. To make herself feel better, she reminded herself the elves were getting good wages and paid holidays for their work, which they enjoyed.

"I'll just be going then," Rose said and began making her way to the portrait hole. "Are you coming?"

"Are you joking?" Scorpius called after her, "I haven't even had dessert."

Again, Rose laughed, confused as to how a person who could make her laugh so easily was also the person she could have the world's most awkward conversation with.

When she got back to the dormitory, Rose nearly woke Francesca up and told her of how Scorpius ruined the big midnight feast plans. Instead, she saved that conversation for over breakfast the next day. Albus only joined them near the end of the tale, but Francesca quickly filled him in, to Rose's dismay.

"But I wasn't bothered," insisted Rose after watching Albus stifle a laugh.

* * *

Two weeks passed before Rose even looked at Scorpius, and even then she was partly forced.

* * *

"Rose!" Albus called when Rose and Francesca climbed through the portrait hole just before curfew. Cursing under her breath, Rose turned to her cousin, who was beaming down at her; it had been a gruelling homework session in the library and Rose wasn't in the mood.

"When did you get so tall?" she grumbled, pushing past Albus as she addressed him.

Albus grabbed Rose's arm in an attempt to still her. "About the same time you stopped growing," he said. "Anyway, you're coming with me. You too, Longbottom," he added, nodding to Francesca.

Rose shot a look to her best friend – Francesca was blushing slightly.

"The only place I'm going is to bed," insisted Rose as she mentally calculated the best place to knee Albus for a quick getaway.

"Rose," admonished Francesca. "You know I recognise your pain inflicting face when I see it. Let's just go."

Rose sighed. "It's past curfew," she said. Francesca nudged her in the side and indicated a bit of parchment sticking deliberately out of Albus' robes.

Looking around the Common Room to make sure no one was in earshot, Francesca whispered, "Is that the map?"

Predictably, Rose had told her best friend about the Marauder's Map, but Francesca had never actually seen it.

Albus smirked. "James really needs to find a different hiding place for this thing. The bottom of his trunk, honestly."

"It's as much yours as it is his," said Rose. Admittedly, the map had piqued her interest – and taken away the potential of getting caught, which chalked up a good plan in Rose's book.

"So you're in then?" Francesca asked, trying not to look eager.

Dramatic as always, Rose heaved a huge sigh and said, "I suppose so."

Half asleep, Rose paid hardly any attention to where Albus was taking them. Although, she did notice Albus let Francesca hold the map and keep an eye out for teachers without letting her know where he was leading them. Even in her stupor, Rose realised within minutes where their destination was – the kitchens. It wasn't as if Albus had tried to take them through secret passages or anything that would throw them off the scent; he'd followed the exact same route Rose and thousands of students before her had taken.

Maybe Albus had taken a leaf out of Rose's mother's book and was staging a protest on elf employment.

When she entered the kitchens, Rose was not prepared to see Scorpius Malfoy sitting atop a large picnic blanket just to the side of the house tables, surrounded by mounds of food.

"Surprise!" exclaimed Albus with a flourish.

Scorpius got to his feet. "I wanted to extend my humblest apologies to you, Rose, after ruining your magnificent midnight feast the other week."

Smiling, Rose approached Scorpius, with Albus and Francesca trailing behind her. She put her arms around his neck and felt him tense for a second but then he relaxed, put his arms around her waist and squeezed once before letting go.

Rose turned to her cousin and practically tackled him with a hug.

Once freed, Albus laughed. "Of course, it was all my idea."

Oh, Rose thought. She'd assumed it was Scorpius' idea, as he was the one who'd actually ruined her plans, but it wasn't the sort of thing Scorpius Malfoy would do.

"Because you want to spend more time with Francesca?" Rose teased. She laughed when they both went bright red.

Rose sat down next to Scorpius, and across from Albus, so Francesca had no choice but to sit next to Albus. Neither of the brunettes seemed put-out by the seating arrangement.

Surveying the food, Rose picked up one of the plates from the stack in the middle. She piled her plate high with all the food she'd imagined for her original midnight feast – it was all around them on the blanket, even her favourite chocolate pudding.

"This food is so good," Rose said appreciatively, with her mouth full of chicken. Francesca rolled her eyes at the appalling lack of manners, and even Albus seemed disapproving of the display. Scorpius on the other hand barked out a laugh and led a toast to the house elves for preparing the food.

"You mean to say," gasped Rose, placing a hand over her heart. "You and Al didn't make all this food yourselves?"

Francesca shook her head in mock disappointment. "You had me really impressed then, as well."

Again, Albus turned red. Rose nearly reached out and forced their heads together, but she settled for clearing her plate as quick as she could, ignoring various disgusted looks she got from the two sat across from her. She assumed she was getting the same looks off Scorpius, but when she finished eating she looked sideways at him to see he was eating just as quickly as she had been. When he had cleared his plate, he stood up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

Jumping up after him, Rose said, "I'm full, aren't you, Scorpius?" She smirked at the looks she was getting from Francesca and Albus – subtlety wasn't her strong point.

"Fit to burst; I don't think I can be around this food any longer," he agreed. They nodded to each other and began speeding towards the portrait hole.

As Scorpius climbed through, Rose looked back and saw that Albus and Francesca had moved closer. This was the perfect opportunity to embarrass either of them, but Scorpius grabbed Rose's arm and pulled her through the portrait hole before she could start.

They walked as far as the seventh floor together with Scorpius checking down corridors for teachers before they proceeded. She could tell that he didn't usually check for teachers from the way he forgot a few times and Rose had to pull him back in fear of getting caught. It was nice of him to check for her peace of mind.

To Rose's surprise, it wasn't that awkward; they joked about their best friends and argued over which of them would receive the highest mark in the Herbology project due in the next week. Scorpius seemed confident that he'd succeed, but he hadn't corresponded with an actual Niffler breeder for the project – Rose's dad's friend Lee has been happy to contribute to Rose's project.

"There's no way you know more about Nifflers than I do," Rose bragged as they came to a stop at the top of a staircase. They were stood on the seventh floor, with Ravenclaw Tower to their left and Gryffindor Tower to their right.

Scorpius just rolled his eyes and put one foot to walk left, angling his body so he still faced Rose. "Thanks for actually coming. I wasn't sure you would and can you imagine if I'd been stuck on my own with those two?"

Imagining Scorpius sat alone in between Albus and Francesca made Rose laugh. "I nearly didn't come, but the delicious food almost made up for the fact that I was just a ploy to get Francesca there."

Scorpius' smile didn't quite meet his eyes. He continued down the corridor, turning back once to reiterate how much he was going to annihilate Rose in Herbology, and to bid her goodnight.

* * *

It turned out that Lee Jordan didn't know very much about Nifflers, and Scorpius did indeed annihilate Rose, as she got an awful mark. A few years previously, Rose would've thought a bad mark was the end of the world, but she found herself laughing it off with her cousin and best friend, the newly formed couple.

As for Scorpius and Rose, they weren't _quite _friends yet, as they shared little more than short conversations, greetings in the corridors and occasional sarcastic comments. The pair had three full years left at Hogwarts in which _anything _could happen.


	5. Friendly Competitors

Describing fifth year in four letters would be easy: OWLs. No matter how hard Rose tried to convince herself she'd be fine, as the exams got closer and closer, she found herself becoming more and more panicked. Obviously the solution was to spend almost all of her free time in the library. By May, with the exams in less than a month, Rose practically moved in to the back corner of the library, where she was unlikely to be disturbed.

* * *

With her nose close to the parchment, Rose scribbled down the names of Jupiter's moons, and then proceeded to list all the characteristics of each one, including the orbital length and about ten other things she didn't care about.

She put down her quill to yawn and stretch her back, which was aching slightly after being hunched over desks all week. But it was Friday, so Rose picked up her quill again, deciding she would finish revising Jupiter before going to bed. A little while later, Madam Pince began extinguishing the lamps around the library, and urged Rose to go and get some sleep. The old woman gave up quickly after Rose slightly hysterically claimed she _needed _to finish, leaving a single lamp lit over her table.

Io is the most geologically active body in the Solar System, due to… due to… to…

"Rose," hissed a voice from above. "Rose, wake up!"

"Huh?" Rose opened her eyes and found her cheek pressed against a diagram of Europa. Blinking, she lifted her head in the scarce light to see Scorpius looking down at her.

Scorpius pulled out the chair next to her and sat down. "Why are you in the library at two a.m.?"

"It's two a.m.? Oh Merlin I must've fallen asleep. I need to finish this stuff about Jupiter, then I'll go to bed…"

Rose moved to pick up her quill, but Scorpius snatched it away.

"No, Rose," he said carefully, as if speaking to a wild animal. "You're going to bed now, this isn't healthy."

Frowning, Rose made a move for the quill. Scorpius held it just out of her reach. When she gave up trying to grab it, she slumped in her chair and put her chin in her hands. "Why are you here anyway?" she grumbled.

Scorpius returned to a normal sitting position, but placed Rose's quill at the opposite end of the table. "Me and Al were in the kitchens and Francesca came in, saying you hadn't gone back to the dorm. Al had the map, saw you were in here and I came to find you."

Rose tried to ignore the way her heart fluttered slightly. "Why did you come?" she asked, and then inwardly cringed – that came out sounding rude.

"Thought I should leave them two alone; you know how bad they are when they're together."

"Oh," said Rose, feeling somewhat deflated. She understood, though, since their relationship started, Albus and Francesca were almost impossible to be around – once, they'd even finished each-other's sentences. The memory almost made Rose shudder.

Scorpius stood up. "Come on."

He tried to pull Rose out of her seat, but Rose resisted. Leaning over the table, she grabbed her quill and continued making notes on her parchment. "I need to finish this, otherwise I'll fail Astronomy."

Sighing, Scorpius sat back down. "There's no way you're failing _anything_."

"But I'm awful at Astronomy," protested Rose, not looking up.

"Calm down. Why are you stressing so much?" Scorpius asked. Rose didn't reply. Scorpius placed a hand on her arm to stop her writing, and she finally looked up at him. "Here's the deal: tell me why you're freaking out, and I'll teach you Astronomy."

Rose considered the offer. On one hand, she was revising it herself, but on the other hand, she couldn't remember a single thing she'd studied that evening.

Slowly, she put her quill down. "Okay."

He looked at her expectantly whilst she dragged out the silence for a few more minutes.

"It's my mum," murmured Rose, but she was sure Scorpius could hear in the silence of the library. "I love her and everything, it's just… she got ten OWLs – nine of them were Outstanding, and she expects me to do the same, if not better."

"What's the worst thing that could happen if you don't get nine Os?"

Pondering the question, Rose sighed. "She'll be disappointed."

Scorpius looked as if he was trying not to laugh as he took his hand off Rose's arm. "That's the worst thing? I bet she won't even be disappointed. She's gonna be proud of you whatever."

"But –"

"No buts, Rose. You're going to do amazing in your OWLs, even if you don't kill yourself in the library each night," said Scorpius, rolling his eyes when he finished. Rose had to admit to herself she felt a little better.

"Anyway," continued Scorpius, "the person you should be worried about beating isn't your mum."

"Who's that then?"

"Me."

Rose smirked. "I don't need to worry about that, it's in the bag."

"So you don't need my help for Astronomy?" Scorpius teased, starting to stand.

Rose just glared at him until he sat back down. He slid her parchment in front of him, reading over what she'd written and nodded to himself.

"Ganymede's orbit is…" he prompted.

Scrunching her forehead, Rose thought back. She could vaguely remember writing about orbits. "Two days?"

Scorpius shook his head and said, "That's Io, Ganymede's seven."

Rose sighed. Astronomy definitely wasn't her strong point. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, we'll just have to start from the beginning. Here's how you remember it…"

* * *

And so began the night that Rose and Scorpius stayed up in the library learning and teaching Astronomy, the night that gained Rose an E in Astronomy, and the night that Rose admitted to herself that maybe she did fancy Scorpius Malfoy, just a little bit.

* * *

As soon as their last exam finished, the Hogwarts fifth years all sprinted outside into the summer sun. Rose dove headfirst into the lake and Scorpius followed suit, along with a handful of their peers. She broke the surface of the water, laughing. It felt amazing to be free of exams and the pressure.

When he resurfaced, Scorpius looked around. Rose swam over to him with her robes floating around her.

"Feels great, doesn't it?" Rose asked.

Scorpius smiled at her. "Reckon you've beaten me?"

"Definitely," said Rose, though she wasn't too sure. She wasn't thinking about her results in that moment.

Scorpius resumed looking around, spinning his whole body in the water. "Have you seen Albus?"

A retaliation about Scorpius' attachment to Albus was forming on Rose's lips when she realised something. "I haven't seen Francesca, either."

Beyond the excited group of teenagers, Rose saw the couple stood next to the castle's doors. As she directed Scorpius' attention to them, she noticed they were in some kind of heated argument from the way Francesca was leaning forward, and Albus was violently gesturing.

Rose looked at Scorpius, and he met her eyes. Simultaneously, they both started swimming towards the edge of the lake.

"I thought something like this was going to happen," Scorpius said as they both swerved a wand flying through the air.

"You did?"

"Yeah," he said as they reached the edge of the lake. "Haven't you noticed they've been acting weird these past few weeks?"

Scorpius pulled himself out of the water, and extended a hand to Rose. She allowed him to help her out, thinking that she hadn't noticed anything at all.

"Should I have done?"

Rose fished her wand out of her sopping robes, waved it to dry her clothes then did the same to Scorpius' robes. He thanked her before they began slowly walking towards their friends.

"They've been _too_ happy," explained Scorpius. "Like they're trying to force it."

Even though Rose had a close connection with both of the people he was talking about, she couldn't recall ever realising. She felt terrible. She'd been too preoccupied with OWLs that she hadn't been paying any attention to her best friend.

Francesca glanced over at the lake and stopped talking. She said something, quick and harsh by the looks of it, and marched towards Rose and Scorpius. Her face was red, but her eyes were clear as she grabbed Rose's arm and led her silently to a tree a good distance away from the party going on at the lake.

"I just broke up with him," said Francesca, slumping against the tree.

Rose sat down and put her arm around the brunette. "Oh, sweetie, why?"

"We just didn't feel right anymore," she confessed. "I really like him, it was just with OWLs and everything, it was too much pressure and we both knew it had to end."

Rose had never really been good with the emotional stuff. She squeezed Francesca's shoulder comfortingly and hoped she got the message. "Looked like you were having a pretty intense argument – did he not take it very well?"

To Rose's utter bewilderment, Francesca stifled a laugh. "Well I thought I had to give him an actual reason, so guess what I said."

Smiling, Rose asked, "What?"

"I told him that he's too obsessed with Scorpius to have a girlfriend."

Throwing her head back, Rose let out a huge bout of laughter. Soon, Francesca was giggling along with her. Rose felt a huge rush of love and vowed to be a better friend to Francesca, and not become accidentally oblivious _again_.

* * *

Not long after, Francesca and Rose re-joined the party. The next day, there were tears and consoling, but for then, both of the girls let themselves be swept away in the merriment of the end of exams.

Rose ended up with eight Os and two Es. As soon as she received her results, her mother swept her up into a massive hug and told her how proud she was.

At some point, torn between listening to Albus moan about Francesca, and Francesca moan about Albus, Rose decided the two of them absolutely had to get back together. It became first on the Rose's good friend agenda. To succeed in her mission, she'd need some help…


	6. Friends

As the early days of sixth year passed, Rose noticed all the subtle ways her cousin and best friend avoided each-other. Francesca obsessively checked a room before she entered, and Albus was almost always absent from dinner. Despite not being the most observant, Rose knew it was only a matter of time before they got back together. Neither Francesca nor Albus said a bad word about the other, and both tinged red at the mention or sight of their ex.

* * *

When November came and both Gryffindors were still single, Rose sidled up to Scorpius in the corridor. "We need to get them back together."

Scorpius mouth lifted up at the corners. "I was seconds away from saying the same to you."

"I have a plan," said Rose shortly.

Rolling his eyes towards the ceiling, Scorpius groaned. "Oh, no, we're not doing anything that you've concocted in that brain of yours."

Disgruntled, Rose pulled Scorpius to the side of the corridor, ignoring the throng of students that passed them. In low tones, she outlined her plan to Scorpius, watching his smile return wider with each word she said. "So what do you think now?" she asked.

"I think that you're a genius."

Smirking, Rose slipped into the Transfiguration classroom and took her front row seat next to Francesca. In front of Rose when she sat down was an essay with an 'O' scrawled at the top. She looked behind her at the 'E/O' on Scorpius' paper and stuck her tongue out at him as he rolled his eyes yet again.

A few hours later, after lessons had finished for the day, Rose entered her dorm room. She was greeted by Francesca, who was sat on her bed reading a book.

"Hey," greeted Rose as she flung herself across Francesca's bed. "No homework?"

Francesca picked up the chocolate frog card she used as a bookmark off her bedside table and placed it in her book before looking up. Rose thought it was adorable Francesca used her father's chocolate frog card, even though Rose would never dream of using either of her parent's cards for anything – except maybe trading away for someone cooler.

"Nope, I've had two free periods today."

Nodding as if this was brand new information and she hadn't double checked Francesca's timetable that morning, Rose smiled. "Brilliant, so you're free to come with me."

Francesca sighed wearily, but put her book down and held her hands up regardless. "Where are we going?"

Rose jumped off Francesca's bed, and then pulled Francesca to her feet without answering the question. As they walked down the stairs, through the common room and down to the sixth floor, Rose refused to divulge their destination.

A sharp intake of breath from her right told Rose that Francesca had spotted Albus and Scorpius at the end of the corridor, walking towards them. "Please tell me they aren't a part of your plan."

Rose paused, debating her answer. "Of course not," she said finally.

"Then why are they there?" asked the brunette through gritted teeth.

"I don't know, probably going up to their common rooms."

Mollified, Francesca quietened. Out of the corner of her eye, Rose could see her friend grow increasingly red as the pair of boys loomed closer. Francesca kept her eyes glued to a broom cupboard on her side of the corridor to avoid meeting Albus' eye.

When they were about three metres from each other, Scorpius nodded at Rose, the latter took this as a signal to wave her wand towards the broom cupboard. The door of the cupboard flung open, revealing the mops and spare quills inside. Not very gently, Scorpius shoved Albus into the cupboard. He tripped over a bucket on the floor and collapsed against the wall. Just as he attempted to get up, Francesca seemed to click and tried to turn away, but Rose caught her arm and pushed her a bit more respectfully into the cupboard after her ex-boyfriend.

"You're not coming out of there until you sort things out," Rose chided as she shut the door in Francesca's face.

Ignoring the bangs coming from the other side, Scorpius locked the door with the 'colloportus' charm.

"They'll still be able to get out with alohamora," noted Rose, frowning as she hadn't thought of that before.

Scorpius smirked and leaned against the wall. He pulled a second wand out of his robes.

"You got his wand?" Rose laughed, wishing she'd thought of that.

Stowing the wand back in his robes, Scorpius said, "I'm guessing you didn't get Francesca's."

Rose leaned on the wall next to Scorpius. "Nope," she said. "But don't worry, she's not gonna try and get out."

"You sure?"

"Definitely, or else she'd be out by now." Rose moved to the side slightly and pressed her ear against the door. "Looks like she's performed a sneaky sound proof charm though."

Scorpius seemed to contemplate this whilst Rose looked around. She'd picked a great corridor – it was empty apart from the two of them, if Francesca and Albus didn't count. The charm Francesca had put on the door was flawless; Rose couldn't hear a thing except her and Scorpius' slightly laboured breathing from following the plan through.

"It's like Schrödinger's cat," observed Scorpius after a few minutes.

Immediately Rose snapped her head towards Scorpius. "You know about that? Even I barely know about it and my mum's Muggle-born."

As if he hadn't meant to say that aloud, Scorpius hesitated and Rose could see him start to retreat into the shell he hadn't been in around her since third year. "Er, yeah, I like Muggle Science."

"Explain it to me," Rose said quickly.

Out of the corner of his eye, Scorpius glanced at Rose. He looked surprised. Rose didn't blame him; not many people in the Wizarding World cared about anything to do with Muggles much (except her granddad, but he didn't know many useful things).

"Unless you don't actually know what you're talking about?" Rose teased.

To Rose's relief, Scorpius took up the challenge. "Basically, this Schrödinger guy tried to explain another theory by saying if you locked a cat in a box with something radioactive, you wouldn't know if the cat's dead or alive because you can't see it. So, until you open the box, the cat is both dead and alive."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "You're saying Albus and Francesca are dead and alive?"

"No," said Scorpius, rolling his eyes as he often did in her presence. "I'm saying their relationship is both dead and alive to us right now."

"Merlin, I hope it's alive."

Scorpius chuckled, running a hand through his hair. "If I have to hear Albus moping about her again I'll push him off the Astronomy Tower.

"Imagine how I feel, I have to hear it off the both of them."

"Ouch," said Scorpius. "How do you survive?"

"It's an eternal struggle." Rose paused, entertaining a thought that had just re-entered her head. "How do you know so much about Muggle science?"

Scorpius looked uncomfortable for a second, as if she'd just kicked him in the shin. He seemed to make a decision – whether she was worth it, Rose assumed – before turning so his shoulder was against the wall instead of his back and he could fully look at her. "It's my dad's influence, mostly."

"Really?" Rose cursed herself for sounding so surprised.

Thankfully Scorpius didn't seem bothered. "He's always encouraged me to find out things about Muggles. When I was little he used to take me and my mum to Muggle museums and things like that," Scorpius stopped to search Rose's face, and then sighed. "I think it's his way of trying to make up for what he did… he really regrets it, y'know."

Rose didn't quite know what to say. She considered putting her hand on his arm – her heart fluttered at the thought – but decided against it. In the end, she settled on changing the subject from something he clearly wasn't too happy to talk about. "That's amazing, it sounds like the stuff my mum's trying to do in the Ministry, like getting people to integrate with Muggles so witches and wizards start to see them as actual people, and not just as some inferior race. She'd love to hear about what your dad's doing."

"You won't tell her, will you? Not even Albus knows how much I know about Muggles. I didn't even take Muggle Studies just to avoid being known as the freak cares too much about them. It's not like I need another label on my freak title."

Rose was about to respond when she heard distant squeals coming from around the corner. The sound got closer and closer until a group of second years tore through the corridor. One of them had a Weasley's Wizard Wheezes firework sticking out of his robes, which fell out and rolled across the floor towards Rose's feet. She bent down to pick it up; admiring the colourful packaging she had helped to choose when she was a toddler.

"Aha!" exclaimed a deep voice. Rose looked up from the firework to see Mr Figg, the caretaker, jogging towards them. "I knew it would be a Weasley setting these dastardly things off."

"It wasn't –" Rose began, springing off the wall to stand straight, even though she was nothing compared to the size of the caretaker.

"Did your father give you these?" he asked, eyeing Rose's ginger hair suspiciously.

"My father isn't even –"

Mr Figg scowled, pointing at the firework. "Detention tomorrow, Weasley."

Oh how Rose sometimes hated the family name and trademark hair.

Scorpius grabbed the firework out of Rose's hand. "It was me. Rose here took the firework off me so I wouldn't set another one off."

"To use for herself, no doubt!" Figg yanked the firework out of Scorpius' grip and shoved it unceremoniously into his pocket. "Detention for you too, Mr…"

Scorpius sighed. "Malfoy."

The man's scowl became more pronounced. "Well, Malfoy, Weasley: Trophy Room at 7 tomorrow. Don't bother bringing your wands." He turned back the way he came and stomped away.

"How dare he!" seethed Rose. "Blaming me just because I'm a Weasley – if he thinks I'm going to that detention he's got another thing coming."

Scorpius grabbed Rose's arm and pulled her back so she was leaning against the wall again. "Relax, Rose, that's what people do."

At once, Rose remembered all the hatred Scorpius suffered because of his surname. "Sorry, it's just so frustrating. How do you deal with it?"

"It's an eternal struggle," quoted Scorpius with a smirk. Rose couldn't believe he could just get over the prejudice, but admired that he did.

Twirling a piece of hair around her fingers, Rose tried to take a leaf out of Scorpius' book and not let the prejudice bother her. It didn't really work, but she tried to focus her mind on something else anyway. "Ready to open the box?"

"You do the honours," Scorpius said, stepping forward to face the door.

"Alohamora." Rose tapped the door with her wand, then moved backwards to stand next to Scorpius.

The door creaked open a fraction before swinging violently on its hinges. Albus and Francesca stumbled out of the door with surprised exclamations. They both straightened up almost guiltily, bearing tell-tale swollen lips.

Rose coughed once and the pair of apparently extremely hormonal teenagers looked at her. "So?"

Francesca tried to hide her face behind her hair, but Rose could see her smile. On the other hand, Albus blatantly grinned. "We're back together," he announced smugly. "Thanks for taking both our wands off us."

"No problem mate." Scorpius tossed Albus his wand. Raising her eyebrows at Francesca, Rose tossed her friend her own wand, knowing full well Francesca had her wand.

"I'm going to the library to do some homework, considering I have detention tomorrow," said Rose, starting to walk down the corridor. She assumed everyone else would be going back up to the common rooms.

Francesca caught up with her. "Thanks a lot, Rose," she said sincerely, subtly passing Rose her wand back. "I just wanted to stay in there and sort it out."

"And sort it out you did," laughed Rose, pocketing her wand. She watched Francesca walk back towards Scorpius and Albus, and latch on to the latter's hand. Rose smiled, pleased with herself as she continued towards the library.

"It's definitely alive, Rose!" called Scorpius from behind her.

Giggling, Rose shouted back, "See you in detention, Malfoy!"

* * *

Despite vowing to not go to the detention, of course Rose actually went, because she was Rose Weasley. She didn't break the rules, and when someone wrongly accused her, she took the punishment. Plus, even though she wouldn't admit it to herself, it was an excuse to spend more time with Scorpius.

* * *

It seemed Mr Figg had attempted to come up with his worst punishment for the two, as detention included manually scrubbing down every trophy on display in the Trophy Room. Rose decided to clean in silence so she and Scorpius could clean quicker without distractions, and Scorpius did the same.

Cursing her dad and uncle for ever winning an award for Special Services to the School, Rose polished the front of each trophy, plaque and award on the right side of the room. Her boredom was occasionally punctuated with a name she recognised, mostly on Quidditch trophies and of course that hugely annoying Special Services to the School. Like, so what they battled a basilisk and saved Auntie Ginny, was there really need for a metre tall award?

Nevertheless, Rose and Scorpius finished in good time. They both threw their cloths down in the bucket of soapy water and used their sorely missed wands to dry their hands.

On their way out, Rose remembered what Scorpius had said to her right before they were interrupted by Figg. "By the way, I won't tell anyone about your Muggle thing. I think it's brilliant, though."

"Thanks," said Scorpius, then he seemed to ponder what to say next to get himself out of talking about something he was ashamed of. "What did you get on the Potions assessment?"

The answer was on Rose's lips when, all of a sudden, she thought: I'm going to stop this stupid rivalry now. She didn't know where the thought came from, but it made sense. Why, exactly, did two sixth years still compete over their grades? "I'm not telling you."

"Why not? Did you get an," Scorpius sighed dramatically, "A?"

Rose rolled her eyes. She had, actually, received an O. "No."

"A P?" he guessed, to which she shook her head. "Oh Merlin, you got a T, didn't you?"

Grinning, Rose nodded. "Sure I did."

"You're joking me right?"

Rose told him she was indeed joking, leaving him puzzled.

"So why aren't you telling me?"

They had reached the top of the staircase leading to the seventh floor; the place where they'd spilt off to go to their common rooms. Both sixth years came to a halt, facing each-other. "I don't know," admitted Rose. "I just think we should stop this competition thing. Don't you think we're a bit old for it now?"

Forehead creased, Scorpius mulled this over. "Yeah, I guess."

"Even though it's kind of our thing," said Rose. She wondered if they'd ever have reason to interact again.

Scorpius hesitated before saying, "We could be actual friends."

"Friends?" she echoed, "Who talk, like, not sporadically?"

"Sure, why not?" He held out his hand to shake, and Rose took it, trying not to feel disheartened he hadn't gone for a hug.

It was nearing curfew; Rose turned away in the direction of Gryffindor tower. "See you later, Scorp."

"Don't call me Scorp," he laughed. "It sounds ridiculous."

* * *

So, obviously, after that Rose never called him anything but Scorp.


	7. Something More?

Early in their seventh year, Rose decided she didn't like the thought of Scorpius sneaking off to the kitchens alone most nights. Instead, she'd insisted that if her, Francesca or Albus, couldn't spend the dinner hour with Scorpius, then he'd simply have to eat in the Great Hall with everyone else. At the time, Scorpius claimed he was fine with eating alone or in the Hall ("I am an adult, you know, Rose"), but Rose knew he was grateful, and she wished she'd done it sooner.

* * *

Unfortunately, the hectic lifestyle that came with NEWTs – they were Nastily Exhausting, after all – didn't leave much time for Rose and her friends to eat dinner all together. The first night they could all make fell in late September. True to tradition, the four seventh years ate in the kitchens then sat on the floor with empty plates in front of each of them.

"As it's the first time we've eaten together like this, I wanted to say congratulations to the best Head team this school's ever seen. First to my best friend, Scorpius Malfoy," declared Albus, inclining his head to the Head Boy in question, who rolled his eyes with a laugh. "And to my beautiful, amazing, intelligent girlfriend Francesca Longbottom!"

Francesca giggled and kissed Albus on the cheek as Rose made gagging sounds. In first year, Rose probably would've kicked up a fuss if she knew she wouldn't make Head Girl in her last year. Although, when it got to it, she found she didn't really care.

"Isn't Scorp beautiful, amazing and intelligent?" teased Rose, proud when she didn't blush. She was getting good at hiding the betraying blushes that occasionally warmed her cheeks.

Scorpius almost choked on his pumpkin juice. "I would say you've been drinking too much Firewhiskey, Al, but all we've got is juice."

"Don't ruin it with your smart comments," said Albus. "We were having such a nice night."

"Yeah, Scorp," scoffed Rose. "Don't ruin everything by _talking_."

Laughing, Scorpius collected everyone's plates and put them in a pile. Despite Francesca's protests, several house elves rallied round to tidy up the plates.

After the plates had gone and there was no excuse to stay in the kitchens, Francesca yawned. "I need to go to the library and do an Arithmancy essay."

Albus lifted himself up off the ground and pulled Francesca up after him. "I'll come with you." He wrapped his arm around her waist.

"I'm glad they're back together," said Scorpius as soon as the couple had made their way out of the kitchens, "but Merlin are they embarrassing."

Pushing herself up, Rose groaned. "Tell me about it."

On his feet now too, Scorpius said, "If I'm ever in a cringe filled relationship like that, get a killing curse right in my heart."

To her own ears, Rose's laugh didn't quite seem genuine. "Me too."

* * *

'Just friends, just friends, just friends' was Rose's mantra for the majority of her seventh year.

* * *

It was just one of those days.

Albus and Francesca had snuck off to Merlin-knows-where for some 'alone time' or something as equally disgusting, and Rose had been cornered by Professor Flitwick, who'd persuaded her to help with Charms Club straight after dinner. As Rose needed to eat quickly in order to make it, she'd informed Scorpius he'd have to eat in the Great Hall.

"That's _fine, _don't worry about it," he'd said when she told him, as he always did.

Sitting in the Hall with Dominique and Roxanne, scarfing down her dinner as quick as possible, Rose glanced over to Scorpius. He looked fine, straight-backed, eating steadily. But then she noticed he was sat too straight, and was concentrating extremely hard on his food – until his gaze flickered to his left. What he saw apparently made him uncomfortable, as he closed his eyes for a second longer than a normal blink before he resumed eating.

Rose scanned the Ravenclaw table. A group of fifth years were hunched over the table, shoulders shaking. Even though she couldn't see their faces, Rose knew they were laughing at Scorpius.

Anger rose inside of her, building up until she dropped her fork and swung herself over the bench before she even realised what she was doing. She took a deep breath, calming herself down. Her cousins broke off from their conversation to stare at her.

"Tell Flitwick I can't make Charms Club," she told them, hoisting her bag over one shoulder. "Please?"

Without waiting for their replies, she sauntered over to the Ravenclaw table. As Rose passed the still-laughing fifth years, she made sure her bag bounced off each of them in turn.

"Hey, Scorp," greeted Rose cheerfully. He tried to hide the relief in his eyes when he looked up at her. "Let's go."

Scorpius looked confused, but made no attempt to argue as he stood up. On the way out, Rose stared daggers at the fifth years, itching to let her wand literally embed daggers in the back of their heads.

"What was that for?" Scorpius asked as soon as they stepped out of the Hall into the corridor beyond.

"I hate fifth years," announced Rose as she led them towards the kitchens. "They think they're better than everyone else."

Eyebrows raised, Scorpius said, "You were a fifth year not long ago."

"Obviously, but I didn't laugh at people for no reason."

Scorpius sighed then ran his hands though his hair. "You didn't have to do that."

"I did," Rose insisted.

Again, Scorpius sighed. He didn't say anything until they were stood in the kitchens a few minutes later. "Thanks."

"That's what friends are for," said Rose; because that's what they were – just friends.

Scorpius smiled softly. "You're the best friend ever."

Honestly, Rose wanted to hex Scorpius and tell him that she didn't want to be just friends, but instead she laughed. "Don't let Albus hear you saying that."

A house-elf came over, asking if he could get the pair anything. Both of them asked for some trifle, having just eaten in the Hall.

Minutes later, they were sat at the replica Slytherin table, digging into their dessert.

"Remember in third year when you had that rebellious phase that lasted about a day?"

Rose groaned. "Don't you dare bring that up!"

"Actually, I think it was less than a day," Scorpius chuckled. "More like eight hours."

Moodily, Rose jabbed her spoon into her trifle. "Yeah, yeah, I was in bits over Zabini, the bastard."

"Didn't he call you ugly?"

"Yeah, I think that just about ruined me," admitted Rose, ashamed she ever listened to scum like Angus Zabini.

Smirking, Scorpius shovelled a heap of trifle into his mouth. "He was just speaking the truth, though."

Rose glared at him. "Like you can talk with your face full of custard."

As if to pile even more food into his mouth, Scorpius lifted up a full spoon but instead of directing it to his mouth, he flung the contents on to Rose's robes.

"Scorp!" she yelled. She picked up her plate and dumped the whole lot down his front.

Creasing with laughter, Scorpius levitated the remains of his trifle so it hovered just above Rose's head. She dived from the table and ran across the kitchens, dodging house elves, with the trifle still hanging precariously over her head. As she leapt out of the portrait hole, the trifle smashed against the wall of the kitchen, sending strawberry jam and custard flying.

Rose fixed Scorpius with an accusatory stare through the hole. "You can clean that up." She gestured to a wet cloth in a heap on the counter.

As Rose watched, Scorpius grabbed the cloth and began scrubbing pieces of the pudding off the floor. Whenever a house elf appeared to help, Rose ushered them away. She got her wand out and used it to rid herself of any food, and used the same charm on Scorpius after he scowled at her.

"That's what you get for starting a food fight," admonished Rose as Scorpius clambered through the hole to join her after the mess had been sufficiently cleaned up.

"Whatever," said Scorpius, although he was trying not to grin. "Didn't you have Charms Club, anyway?"

Rose bit her lip. "I'll tell Flitwick it's your fault I missed it, he loves you."

Even though Rose was sure that excuse would get her out of any trouble, Rose thought she'd better apologise to Flitwick, so she said her goodbyes to Scorpius there and made her way to the staffroom. The old man answered the door as soon as she knocked, as if he knew she'd come.

"I'm so sorry I didn't make Charms Club," she apologised as soon as Flitwick looked up at her.

Instead of the rebuke she'd anticipated, Flitwick nodded at her. "It wasn't a problem."

She didn't even have to use the Scorpius excuse. "Oh – well I'm sorry anyway." Rose started to turn away when Flitwick's voice sounded again.

"If there's anything more important to me than Charms Club," he began in his squeaky voice. "It's my Ravenclaws."

Rose spun around, regarding the professor in surprise. She would've expected nothingto be more important than _Charms Club_. "Really?"

"Of course, Miss Weasley, although I must say I am ashamed of my fifth years, treating our esteemed Head Boy in such a manner."

Nodding along, Rose bumped up Flitwick to her all-time favourite teacher.

Flitwick started to close the door between them. "One last thing: if I ever see Mr Malfoy eating alone again, it'll be a detention for you."

"Of course, Sir."

* * *

Needless to say, Scorpius never ate a meal alone again.

* * *

"Where're we going?" Rose asked. Usually when she and Scorpius skipped dinner they'd rush to the kitchens to sneak food off the Ravenclaw table before it was sent up. Today, however, they'd gone to the library to work on a Defence essay, where they'd shared a feast of Honeydukes chocolate which Scorpius had fished out of his bag. Rose assumed the plan after would be to go to the kitchens, although she wasn't that hungry after the rich chocolate. Apparently, Scorpius had different intentions as he led them up staircase after staircase in the completely wrong direction.

"Astronomy Tower," he replied, turning down a corridor on the seventh floor that would lead them to the aforementioned tower.

Rose raised her eyebrows. It would be, she assumed, freezing in October. "Why?"

Scorpius shrugged, reaching the end of the corridor. "Felt like a change of scenery."

They now faced a ladder that would lead them up to the tower. Chivalrously, Scorpius motioned for Rose to climb first. Rose gave him a pointed look and pulled at her skirt.

"Oh, sorry," Scorpius said, sounding anything but apologetic, and placed his foot on the first rung of the ladder. Rose followed behind him, pleased to note that the temperature was comfortable when she reached the top and straightened herself.

The sun had set whilst they were in the library, releasing a clear sky aglow with countless stars. Having dropped Astronomy after OWLs (and ashamedly forgotten everything Scorpius had crammed into her head), Rose could barely name one star.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"Right beside you," Scorpius said, sounding confused.

Rose giggled. "Not _you _you, the star you."

Under his breath, Scorpius mumbled something about Rose's mental state. "It's a constellation, actually, and you can't see it from here this time of year."

"Hyperion, then."

Scorpius laughed loudly. "That's one of Saturn's moons."

"Okay, okay," Rose grumbled. "No need to laugh at my stupidity."

After a few moments, Scorpius stopped laughing and held up his hands. "No, it's endearing."

"Endearing?" Rose repeated questioningly. Did he just call her endearing? What on earth, Rose thought, was that supposed to mean? Endearing wasn't a usual Scorpius comment. His normal style was occasional lewd comments, and ignoring the fact she was a girl for the rest of the time. To Rose, endearing meant cute, it meant a reason to be attracted to someone, whilst Scorpius had made it clear, on several occasions, he saw her as nothing more than a friend.

Scorpius hesitated; Rose noticed his mouth open slightly then close as if he'd decided against saying something.

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

Clearing his throat, Scorpius looked away. He walked over to balcony of the tower, dodging telescopes as he went. "Nothing."

Rose followed after him, joining the blond as he looked over the edge, his hair slowly swishing in the wind. "Stop being all melancholy," she poked him in the stomach. "Tell me, Scorp."

"I'll tell you if you stop calling me Scorp."

Rose sighed. "Fine, _Scorpius_, spit it out."

Scorpius turned his attention from the sky to Rose. "You know that time in fourth year when we had that first midnight feast?"

Rose tried to ignore the way her stomach plummeted. She looked out over the grounds. In the distance she could see the spot Scorpius had told her he liked her hair (and stopped her insanity), and to the left of that was the lake where they'd partied after OWLs. "The one Albus planned for Francesca?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Rose saw Scorpius scrunch his face up. "That's not exactly how it happened."

Rose snapped her head to look at Scorpius. "How did it happen?" she asked suspiciously.

"Originally it was going to be just me and you because I fancied the pants off you, but–"

Gaping, Rose exclaimed, "You _what_?"

Scorpius hushed her. Rose didn't want to comply, but she didn't think she could say another word – her brain was in overdrive. Instead, she motioned for him to continue.

"But then I felt bad because Albus would not stop talking about Francesca and how much he liked her, so I let him in on it and gave him all the credit."

For once in her life, Rose didn't know what to say, so what came out was, "And Albus let you do that?"

Scorpius laughed. "Trust you to start passing the blame to your poor cousin. He only did it because he thought I just felt bad," he added, "Actually I think he did it to save me the awkwardness."

Rose cleared her throat. "Yeah, we could hardly be around each other back then."

Scorpius didn't say anything, only nodded and glanced away. Rose knew he was waiting for her to react to his comment.

"Must've been all of the sexual tension," she said.

His eyes slowly trailed back to hers. Ever so slightly, he leaned forward. Rose rolled her eyes at his attempt and rocketed forward on her toes to meet her lips with his. He responded enthusiastically and put his arms around her, nothing like the boy who had tensed up the first time she'd hugged him.

"Just to make this clear," Scorpius said when he pulled away, "I still fancy you."

Rose leaned her head on his shoulder and looked out at the starry sky. "I fancy the pants off you too."

"Don't think this means you're getting in to my pants any time soon."

After choking on laughter, Rose spluttered, "Whatever you say, Scorp."

"Call me Scorp again, and you can't be my girlfriend," threatened Scorpius.

Rose craned her neck to look at Scorpius. She was about to joke about where the hell he got the idea from that she wanted to be his girlfriend but got distracted by the curve of his cheekbone. Honestly, who wouldn't?

Scorpius looked down at her. "Is that an agreement?"

Lacing her fingers with his, Rose sighed dramatically. "I'm sorry; I just can't give up Scorp, knowing how much it annoys you."

"Fine," he said. "I guess I'll just have to call you Rosie-kins."

Rose didn't even dignify that with a response. She had a boyfriend, and it was Scorpius, so she didn't care what he called her. "I thought you didn't want a – and this is a direct quote – 'cringe-filled relationship'."

"Oh, Rosie-kins, a relationship with you won't be filled with cringe. It'll be filled with suicidal thoughts."

She kissed him again then, because he couldn't insult her when his mouth was preoccupied.

* * *

That's how Scorpius and Rose went from fierce rivals to snogging under the stars. And from there, you could assume they lived happily ever after.

(Of course, there were more tears, freak-outs and adversity along the way, but that's a whole other story.)

* * *

**A/N: There it is! Hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed exploring both Scorpius and Rose – I hope I did them justice. Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, subscribed or added TSSOSAR to your favourites. **


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